At the rear of this shot in Clayton you see a row of derelict factories. I’ve no idea who used to own them or who owns them now. Manchester is similar to Liverpool whereby both cities used to be prosperous and powerful because of shipping and textiles respectively. I once read Liverpool used to rival London. Manchester was the heart of the Industrial Revolution. Liverpool never recovered when the docks closed. Manchester reinvented itself with (recently) expensive city flats and shops, weekend pubs and clubs, the BBC at Salford Quays, an expanding airport with (I understand) commercial arrangements with China, and the Commonwealth Games (now Manchester City) stadium which is owned by the council whose assets are valued at two billion pounds. Yet one in five people in Manchester is unemployed. I wonder about the economics of all this. Naomi Klein for example describes ‘the shock doctrine’ and the profit interests of war. You traumatise a country with war then develop your commercial interests in the damaged infrastructure. That kind of meta economics explains a great deal. The term ‘job creation’ suggests a positive situation for everyone. It might be. It might also be a people farming project benefiting corporate interests. After I’d got the photographs I wanted I spent forty minutes here picking blackberries. They are wild fruit, not wild flowers, but with a connecting theme. It was a remarkable crop, firstly because it’s in the city and secondly because it’s early August.

When I started walking in the Lake District many years ago I embedded the days in my mind. I would say, this is one of them. Two months later I would say, this is another. They were days of utter contentment, idyllic joy, which I sought to remember as reference points.
Many years later I don’t recall those days precisely, because they are surrounded by so many more. I have vague memories now, descending Great Gable…

Nature writing and outdoor writing rarely crosses the hill and city duality. There’s normal life and the outdoors. We all know the former and we are familiar with the latter too. We read accounts of spring birds arriving from Africa and how lovely it is. We read accounts of a walk up Great Gable, perhaps as a two day trek with a camp at Styhead Tarn. We see photographs. I vaguely do this myself, although…

The article Chris Townsend refers to below takes a valid point but twists it into hyperbole. I agree that photographs in a gallery don’t work as effectively as paintings. Photography is my real love but for different reasons to those underlying the pursuit and accomplishments of a photograph. They don’t compete; they are fundamentally different. It is therefore, I acknowledge, an interesting topic to consider them as both make an appearance in a gallery.
townsendoutdoor</a> &quot;Paintings…

If you want the highest paths, the best Pyrenees views, the High Level Route is for you. That doesn’t mean you should adhere to it and at times I prefer the GR11 and occasionally use the GR10. I suspect the book which is most used for walking the Pyrenees mountains is the one by Ton Joosten about the Haute Route, or High Level Route. It was my first purchase. I then bought a few more…

A few years ago I read an article discussing ‘immersion’ in the hills and how women have the feeling but men don’t. It became silly with talk about the moon, water, and the ladies educating us chaps. Watch a lady swimming in the sea, one person said, and see and learn how she is emotionally enveloped. I’m going to talk about gender and the hills, not the moon and the sea.
There is some truth that…

My first trip to the Pyrenees mountains was in 2007. I returned there backpacking in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. This summer I might go there for the seventh time. I’m considering a series of books, with photographs and notes from all my trips, and it seems I know something about the Pyrenees. Here’s a few notes about travel and towns.
Travel
There are various ways of getting to the Pyrenees. I can only talk about…

Photographic composition is both an art and a science. The science part of it can be taught technically with reference to the Rule of Thirds, leading lines and the psychology of the gaze: what attracts your attention in a shot, where does your eye travel, and why?
The art part of composition is more vague and nebulous because it concerns subjective feelings. Ultimately, as in art so with photography, we like what we like and there’s…

Difference between entertainment mountain material, and my experience mountain material. I will write about this. pic.twitter.com/WnzqSN6VPg— James Lomax (@james__lomax) February 7, 2014
I was recently struck by the above realisation. There’s a difference between writing, photography and video designed to entertain, and that which expresses something more personal and direct. Are you aiming for an audience or something more intangible? Trying to capture interest or inviting it? Serenity or action – and which is the more…

About fourteen months ago I bought a Sony RX100 for two reasons. I wanted a video tool and preferred the ergonomics of a compact camera rather than a video cam as such. I wanted a back up to my DSLR which would also serve as a useful extension for photographic work. This meant two things: a zoom range beyond my Canon L Series 17-40, and inconspicuous size useful for street photography. Any compact camera gives…

Pre-dawn starts are the way to go. I knew it was going to be a good one as soon as I left the trees, the first faint traces of red backlighting gravid cloud. It peaked at 08:30 – and ten minutes later it was over. I’d seen the same thing walking through Inverness the previous morning, shifting layers of pink and red cloud lit up with pinpoint clarity; I could hardly take my eyes…